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John “Jack” Reed attended seminary but ended up spending 32 years with the Cook County sheriff’s police, his dogged investigative work helping in securing federal convictions in the death of Dianne Masters, including her husband and police sentenced to prison in connection with her 1982 death.
A veteran of the U.S. Marines, Reed, 82, of Orland Park, died July 22.
Reed was portrayed by Brian Dennehy in several made-for-television movies about his career and work on the Masters case. He was dedicated to his job, taking calls at home from victims of crimes he was investigating, said his son, John, also a police officer.
“I think he heard this call to service early on,” his son said. “Dad has always had a very strong interest in scholarship, research and investigation.”
Paul Sabin, a former sheriff’s investigator, said Reed “had this way about him that he could talk to anybody” and convince people to open up to him.”
Sabin, now an attorney in private practice, worked for the sheriff for just under 14 years and said Reed “was the best partner I ever worked with, no doubt about it.”
“He was a great devoted family man, always a pleasure to work with,” Sabin said. “He was so dedicated to the sheriff’s police.”
Sabin, after leaving the sheriff’s police in September 1987, was an assistant Cook County state’s attorney for 23 years before going into private practice.
“I learned so much from him, his interviewing techniques,” he said of his former partner. “He was a phenomenal human being.”
Tom Scorza, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago who prosecuted the case that sent Dianne Masters’ husband and his cohorts to federal prison, said Reed “was a prince of a police officer.”
“He was completely reliable, completely honest,” Scorza said. “He was rock-solid.”
Reed and his wife, Arlene, recently celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary. She had taught school for about 50 years, mostly in Burbank Elementary District 111, and the couple met when she hired Jack Reed as a driving instructor, for $12 per lesson, when she was in her 20s, their son, John Reed, said.
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His father worked for the Cook County sheriff’s police from 1966 until 1998, retiring as a lieutenant, although he returned for a time to see some cases through the court process, the younger Reed said.
The elder Reed was a sergeant before his promotion to lieutenant, but rather than taking on more administrative roles as he rose through the ranks, “my dad was still going out and interviewing people on cases, pounding the pavement,” his son said.
“Even as a lieutenant, he was still working cases,” he said.
The younger Reed was promoted in March to sergeant with the Naperville Police Department and said his father was able to attend the ceremony.
“I know he was very proud I went into law enforcement,” Reed said.
Likely the highest profile case his father was involved with concerned the March 1982 disappearance of Dianne Masters. She was 35, and her body was found that December in the trunk of a vehicle sunk in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in Willow Springs.
Her husband, Alan Masters, a well-connected attorney in the southwest suburbs, along with then Cook County Sheriff Lt. James Keating and former Willow Springs police Chief Michael Corbitt, were convicted in June 1989 of conspiracy in her death, although no charges were ever filed in direct connection with Dianne Masters’ death. Alan Masters died in federal prison in October 2000 at age 65.
At the time of her disappearance, Dianne Masters was on the board of Moraine Valley Community College. A victim of domestic violence, allegedly at the hands of her husband, she helped start the Crisis Center for South Suburbia in 1978, which assists domestic violence victims.
Reed, Sabin and later investigator Robert Colby worked on the Masters case, which had languished until a federal investigation opened under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and a federal grand jury assembled, Sabin said.
“It took months to piece everything together,” he said.
Scorza said the combined efforts into the investigation, which included the FBI, helped bring criminal indictments.
“Everybody on the team got along well, all of the agencies,” he said.
The Dennehy movie about the case was a fictionalized representation but included the prosecution’s contention that Masters and somebody else had a direct hand in Dianne Masters’ death.
She had been seen returning to the couple’s home following a Moraine Valley meeting but later disappeared.
“The most likely scenario was that she was supposed to be intercepted and killed,” Scorza said.
Dianne Masters’ skull had been bashed in with a heavy object, and she was shot twice in the brain, according to evidence presented at trial.
“No one to my knowledge has been charged with murder,” Scorza said.
Longtime Southtown columnist Phil Kadner said he was contacted by Reed during the Masters case investigation.
“Jack Reed was a true hero,” Kadner said. “Jack Reed was better than the character they made the movies about. They didn’t do him justice.”
“He always gave credit to a bunch of other people but he was pretty important to the case being solved,” Kadner said.
The two-part NBC miniseries, “Deadly Matrimony,” first aired in the fall of 1992 with Dennehy portraying Reed and actor Susan Ruttan as Arlene.
“This is one of the few true heroes I have ever met in my life and he was bigger than the character in the TV movies,” Kadner said.
That spawned other made-for-TV movies about Reed, including 1993′s “Jack Reed: Badge of Honor,” again with Dennehy and Ruttan. Another came out in 1995, “Jack Reed: One of our Own,” and in 1996 “Jack Reed: Death and Vengeance,” also starred Dennehy, who was also writer and director.
“He and Dennehy looked a lot alike,” Kadner said of Reed. “He was a big, burly guy.”
Reed’s son said both his father and Dennehy were roughly 6-foot-2, and said Dennehy spent some time with Reed and his family before the original “Deadly Matrimony” went into production.
“He was a big, animated talker,” Reed’s son said of Dennehy. “My dad was not a loud, showy guy. He was humble and kind of reserved.”
During get-togethers, Dennehy would pay attention to mannerisms and the investigator’s way with words, with Reed’s son recalling something that his father had repeated in the past that Dennehy jotted down and which made its way into “Deadly Matrimony.”
“Brutality is the tool of the dull-witted,” the son said, noting his father had uttered it in the past, including at a Scout overnight outing.
John M. Reed, the son, said the family and Dennehy remained somewhat close over the years, and that there were occasions when Dennehy performed at Chicago’s Goodman Theater.
“When he would come into town he would reach out to us,” John Reed said. “We would go see his show, then dinner, maybe once a year.”
Dennehy died in April 2020 and actor Treat Williams, who portrayed Alan Masters in “Deadly Matrimony,” died last month in a motorcycle accident in Vermont.
John Reed said his mother prayed often for her husband as he left the door for work, but was not overwrought about it except for at least one time.
It was while Reed was working the Masters case, and the family got a late-night visit.
“One of his bosses came to the house on a Saturday night and tried to intimidate him off the case,” the son said.
Daily Southtown
The son, who worked 10 years as an investigator in Naperville before his promotion earlier this year, said he was never overly worried about his father as far as his job.
“He knew he could take care of himself, he was a big guy,” he said.
The younger Reed said he believed his father was impervious to anything that might happen on the streets.
“He was like a superhero, he was immortal,” he said.
A visitation will be held from 3 to 8 p.m. Monday and starting at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at Robert J. Sheehy & Sons Funeral Home, 9000 W. 151st St., Orland Park.
There will be a funeral Mass at 11 a.m. Tuesday at St. Michael Church, 14327 Highland Ave., Orland Park.
mnolan@tribpub.com